Power tools such as hammer drills are known which have a housing defining a rear handle at a rear part of the housing, and a side handle assembly having a mounting portion releasably mounted to a forward part of the housing. A grip portion coupled to the mounting portion, which allows the user to grip the power tool with both hands, and the side handle assembly is removably mounted for left or right handed use. Known handle assemblies include vibration damping means to damp vibrations transmitted from a main spindle of the hammer drill to the hands of the user gripping the side and rear handles.
One known arrangement is disclosed in DE 4406718 and comprises a handle assembly mounted to a housing of a power tool using a strap retainer surrounding the forward part of the housing. A threaded nut engages a tensioning part to tighten or loosen the strap retainer, and a grip portion is screwed into the threaded nut.
However, this arrangement suffers from the drawback that significant vibrations can still be transmitted from the housing to the grip portion, and a separate tensioning part is required to tighten or loosen the strap retainer, which increases the cost and complexity of manufacture of the hammer drill.
Preferred embodiments of the present invention seek to overcome one or more of the above disadvantages of the prior art.